Larry Olivier was robbed for the Oscar that year. His perforamance as Othello was WAAY better than Lee Marvin (and Lee Marvin was superb, mind you), but Olivier was mind-blowing.
Robbed.
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"Tahiti is not in Europe! I'm going to be sick!"
You're probably right. Could anyone imagine Lee Marvin playing Othello? But, on the other hand, could anyone imagine Laurence Olivier playing Kid Shelleen?
shareComedy performances usually get the short end of the stick at the Oscars because they're not taken - well, taken seriously.
"I don't use a pen: I write with a goose quill dipped in venom!"---W. Lydecker
well, apparently that wasn't the case here
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Olivier was utterly bogus in the role. Marvin deserved his Oscar.
Burton and Werner were also deserving and far better than Olivier. So were non-nominees Omar Sharif (DOCTOR ZHIVAGO), Michael Caine (THE IPCRESS FILE) and Jason Robards (A THOUSAND CLOWNS). Steiger was slightly overrated.
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You have a valid point. However the Oscars are not really about talent. It's more politics than anything else.
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I don't know who was robbed for sure, but I feel like someone was. Lee Marvin is terrific as always, but it's not an Oscar role (even if two roles) for me. He's barely in it. A young Jane Fonda really shines.
Steiger probably should have won since it was a heavy Holocaust drama. Then they wouldn't have had to give it to him for In the Heat of the Night in 1967, when Sidney Poitier (not even nominated for that film or Guess Who's Coming to Dinner when he was pivotal to the success of both). "They call me MISTER Tibbs!"
Alternatively, Warren Beatty or Spencer Tracy could have won. True, it's probably better for Marvin to have one Oscar then Tracy or Poitier to have 3 (including Poitier's honorary award), but imagine if Steiger had already won and they had given it to Poitier for the first time. Then in 1963 the overdue Albert Finney or Paul Newman could have won.
I'm glad a great comedy performance was honored. Thinking back through the best actor winners, Clark Gable and Jimmy Stewart were in what were technically "comedies", ("It Happened One Night" and "The Philadelphia Story"), but they were basically "straight" roles.
I've always thought they should award Oscars the way they elect people to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Not in direct competiion with one another but just ask the voters who deserved it without nominating anyone first. Whoever gets a certain number of votes, gets an Oscar, (obviously it should be a fairly hgih number: you don't want to give them out like candy). That way, performances would be honored based on their level of achievement. You could honor a great comic performance and a great dramatic performance at the same time, (you could also open the voting to performances from past years to correct any apparent omissions). Finally, you wouldn't have lead actors shunted into the supporting category.
Steiger's role in "In the Heat of the Night" was a supporting performance pumped up to lead status to get him the Oscar people thought he deserved for "The Pawnbroker".
Olivier was robbed of nothing. His take on Othello was laugh-inducing and cringe-worthy.
Why should the Academy have recognized this ridiculous blackfaced send up? To say nothing of the rolling eyes and the "hey meestah tally mahn, tally me banana" accent.
Olivier truly sucked in this.
Your message made me laugh out loud. Thanks for this, Pipeman Toronto!
shareMarvin's performance is good, but I agree with the poster who indicated that he 's barely in it; it's not a lead performance, and even in a dual role he doesn't dominnate the film. And though I didn't see Olivier's Othello, Steiger was powerful in The Pawnbroker, Burton's weary monotone in The Spy Who... was effective, and non-nominee Terrence Stamp was chilling as The Collector.
shareOlivier already had an Oscar for Hamlet, so i have no issues with Marvin winning.
Its that man again!!
It doesn't even make sense that he was in the category. Was Shelleen a "Leading Role"? It seems like a "Supporting Role."
Fonda was certainly the female "Leading Role" but there really wasn't a male "Leading Role"-- all the males in this movie are "Supporting."